Roldo Bartimole: Point of View

Point of View

32 1/2 years of POVs are presented here in PDF format and may be viewed or downloaded using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Search for specific issues and topics or browse the entire collection, which includes over 670 issues in their entirety, published between the years 1968 (v.1) and 2000 (v. 33).

Point of View Facts

Point of View volume 1, issue 1, June 1968.

The first issue debuted in June, 1968.

This biweekly newsletter took a critical look at the power structure in Cleveland, reporting on the wealthy's control of the city's agenda to the detriment of its working-class and poor residents.

Some 700+ issues were published over a 32 1/2 year period.

The newsletter reached an all-time high of 1700 paid subscribers, yet it is impossible to estimate the number of copies that circulated to countless readers in offices and households across Northeast Ohio and beyond.

The final issue, Volume 33, No. 5, appeared in December, 2000.

The Upside Down "e"
The artwork adorning every front page of Point of View shows an "e" that has broken free from the pack and subtly sits head over heels between the "i" and the "w". According to Roldo, the graphic artist, John Morrell, designed the logo to capture the opposing voice emanating from the newsletter's pages. But the image was designed only after the artist had previewed the first issue and approved of its content. Roldo feels the inverted letter "was a perfect touch".

In Roldo's own words...
"The freedom to speak frankly gave me the ability to critically examine people, institutions and events by my standard, not simply following media conventional wisdom. It afforded me the opportunity rarely enjoyed by reporters working for traditional news outlets. Other reporters were bound by strictures related to making a profit, satisfying the powerful and, most important, a worldview that demands protecting the status quo of those who exert power in the city." (Point of View, Vol. 33, No. 5, December 2000).